Botero's role in today's stage

After LA and Jan took off, Botero was called back to wait for Vino. Botero
was off the front and second on the road about 2 minutes behind the lone
breakaway.

What in the hell did he hope to accomplish that was more important that
watching out for Vino?

What in the hell in wrong with the Telekom team? They don't seem to know how
to put together a cohesive team. They have Zabel looking for stage wins and
possibly the green jersey (too late now, but earlier that would have been
his goal). They have Vino, who is by far the most successful rider this year
and he was only 18 seconds out of first place and THREE SECONDS from second.
Why couldn't Botero have been riding in the group helping Vinokourov? He
would have kept Vino from losing as much time on the Tourmalet and possibly
they would have arrived at the bottom of the final climb with the other 2
leaders. I have heard no discussion of this. I was always a fan of Botero
but this is terrible.

Vino deserves much better.

In article , Nick Burns
wrote:

After LA and Jan took off, Botero was called back to wait for Vino. Botero
was off the front and second on the road about 2 minutes behind the lone
breakaway.

What in the hell did he hope to accomplish that was more important that
watching out for Vino?

I wondered the same thing when I saw Botero waiting for Vino. He should
have been next to him to whole time. Watching this Telekom "team" I'm
beginning to think they did Julich a favor by leaving him home to train
in Nevada.

-WG

"Nick Burns" wrote in message
...

Why couldn't Botero have been riding in the group helping Vinokourov? He
would have kept Vino from losing as much time on the Tourmalet and
possibly
they would have arrived at the bottom of the final climb with the other 2
leaders. I have heard no discussion of this.

Vinokourov joined the Armstrong/Ullrich group just a bit after they arrived
at the bottom of the climb.

Nick Burns wrote:
After LA and Jan took off, Botero was called back to wait for Vino. Botero
was off the front and second on the road about 2 minutes behind the lone
breakaway.

What in the hell did he hope to accomplish that was more important that
watching out for Vino?

What in the hell in wrong with the Telekom team? They don't seem to know how
to put together a cohesive team. They have Zabel looking for stage wins and
possibly the green jersey (too late now, but earlier that would have been
his goal). They have Vino, who is by far the most successful rider this year
and he was only 18 seconds out of first place and THREE SECONDS from second.
Why couldn't Botero have been riding in the group helping Vinokourov? He
would have kept Vino from losing as much time on the Tourmalet and possibly
they would have arrived at the bottom of the final climb with the other 2
leaders. I have heard no discussion of this. I was always a fan of Botero
but this is terrible.

Vino deserves much better.

What's different between this and USPS's tactics of 2 and 3 stages ago?

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our customers. Our products just aren't engineered for security."
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warren wrote:

In article , Nick Burns
wrote:

After LA and Jan took off, Botero was called back to wait for Vino. Botero
was off the front and second on the road about 2 minutes behind the lone
breakaway.

What in the hell did he hope to accomplish that was more important that
watching out for Vino?

I wondered the same thing when I saw Botero waiting for Vino. He should
have been next to him to whole time. Watching this Telekom "team" I'm
beginning to think they did Julich a favor by leaving him home to train
in Nevada.

-WG

He was probably supposed to serve the same function Beltran and
Rubiera did for Armstrong on the last climb the previous two days.
But Vino isn't Armstrong.

"Nick Burns" writes:

After LA and Jan took off, Botero was called back to wait for
Vino. Botero was off the front and second on the road about 2
minutes behind the lone breakaway.

What in the hell did he hope to accomplish that was more important
that watching out for Vino?

It's a pretty common tactic, actually. You send your climbing
lieutenant ahead on the road so that he's in a position to help you
when you bridge up later in the stage. Botero *did* help Vino on the
Tourmalet descent - they actually made contact with the Armstrong
group, but only at the beginning of the final ascent, where Vino
promptly got dropped again.

A great example of this tactic was the Faenza stage of the Giro, where
Simoni had Bertognoli (sp?) up the road, who then helped him all the
way to the line, despite being pretty tired.

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Nick Burns wrote:

After LA and Jan took off, Botero was called back to wait for Vino. Botero
was off the front and second on the road about 2 minutes behind the lone
breakaway.

What in the hell did he hope to accomplish that was more important that
watching out for Vino?

Marlene Blanshay wrote:
I think they'll reconsider before letting Botero choose his training
regimen. Apparently he chose to race in S. America to get ready for the
tour, and that obviously wasn't enough. Botero has done enough grand tours
to know how hard the Tour is. I know the colombian mountains are reputed
to be very tough, but it seems they aren't quite enough to get you ready
for the Alps and the Pyrenees!

Also its winter here in the southern hemisphere so he would not have
been heat acclimitised. On top of that he does not have nearly enough
racing miles in his legs this season.

Nick Burns wrote:
After LA and Jan took off, Botero was called back to wait for Vino. Botero
was off the front and second on the road about 2 minutes behind the lone
breakaway.

What in the hell did he hope to accomplish that was more important that
watching out for Vino?

What in the hell in wrong with the Telekom team? They don't seem to know how
to put together a cohesive team. They have Zabel looking for stage wins and
possibly the green jersey (too late now, but earlier that would have been
his goal). They have Vino, who is by far the most successful rider this year
and he was only 18 seconds out of first place and THREE SECONDS from second.
Why couldn't Botero have been riding in the group helping Vinokourov? He
would have kept Vino from losing as much time on the Tourmalet and possibly
they would have arrived at the bottom of the final climb with the other 2
leaders. I have heard no discussion of this. I was always a fan of Botero
but this is terrible.

Vino deserves much better.

As far as helping Vinokourov is concerned at least he did help getting
him back up to the chasing group which eventually caught the yellow
jersey group thanks to some hard work from another Telekom rider
(Guerini I think). Maybe if he hadn't been in the break he might
already have been dropped and not have been able to help at all.

"Donald Munro" wrote in message
I think they'll reconsider before letting Botero choose his training
regimen. Apparently he chose to race in S. America to get ready for the
tour, and that obviously wasn't enough. Botero has done enough grand
tours
to know how hard the Tour is. I know the colombian mountains are reputed
to be very tough, but it seems they aren't quite enough to get you ready
for the Alps and the Pyrenees!

Also its winter here in the southern hemisphere so he would not have
been heat acclimitised. On top of that he does not have nearly enough
racing miles in his legs this season.

Colombia sits pretty close to the equator. There are plenty of places in
South America to race year round.

"Carl Sundquist" wrote in message
...

"Donald Munro" wrote in message
I think they'll reconsider before letting Botero choose his training
regimen. Apparently he chose to race in S. America to get ready for
the
tour, and that obviously wasn't enough. Botero has done enough grand
tours
to know how hard the Tour is. I know the colombian mountains are
reputed
to be very tough, but it seems they aren't quite enough to get you
ready
for the Alps and the Pyrenees!

Also its winter here in the southern hemisphere so he would not have
been heat acclimitised. On top of that he does not have nearly enough
racing miles in his legs this season.

Colombia sits pretty close to the equator. There are plenty of places in
South America to race year round.

In addition, he was said to have followed the same program as always. There
is something about him that is not widely know. This is a huge
disappointment for his fans. It looked like he could have been the best
Colombian cyclist of all time.